I thought back to the way her magic felt in the yard, how she had gained control of it, and how at ease she seemed to be in that moment. “Not inherently evil. She’s already so concerned about being evil. You and I both know that you’re not born evil or good.”
Merick nodded. “There’s been talk at the Cult about taking her in.”
“What?”
“One of our members has been looking into adoption, but she specifically wants a magical child who needs guidance. She’s been in talks with the social worker who is assigned to Hope.”
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. The Cult was well equipped to handle Hope and anything that might come up, but there were still some very gray lines there. I had an image of an older Hope hunting down members of her mother’s so-called army.
I smirked at the thought until my computer started showing results on one image. “Whoa, this one has way more results than the one we found on the body.”
“Which one is it?” Merick looked down at the phone.
“Third one I took. The one that’s done without the circle, with the rune that looks a bit like a squiggly snake.”
He glanced up at me. “Very apt description.”
“Haha, anyway. Turns out that it goes back about seven years, a couple of bodies showed up with that mark on it.” I pulled the full files off of the system. Finally, something that we might use.
Merick studied the rune. “I’ve seen a similar one. Let me ask our language person about it and I’ll get back to you.”
“Wait, I thought that you and I were the language people.”
He smirked. “I have one more person I can ask about it. I’ll ask him tonight when I’m off duty.”
I glanced at the clock. “We still have four or five hours until sunset. I’m not sure who is coming to relieve you tonight.”
“If it’s Mario, I can’t wait to hear the lecture you’re going to get about pissing Hannah off.”
I rolled my eyes and went back to pulling the files.
CHAPTER SIX
Levi’s ring tone broke the silence of the office as I logged off of the computer for the day. Merick looked up from the book he was reading.
“You must be in a lot of trouble if it’s Levi calling you.”
“I’m not in trouble. Not yet, at least.” I snatched the phone up and answered it. “What’s up?”
“We have a council meeting tonight. Are you going to be driving up here? Or do I need to send Zayne to come get you?”
I thought about it for a moment. “Have Zayne meet me at my house? I want to change clothes and drop my bag off and such before I face everyone tonight.”
“Alright. I’m assuming everything went smoothly today?”
“Yeah, typical workday, some leg work and some research. Merick’s with me now because Liz said she had a lunch date.” And then hadn’t come back, but Merick seemed to know she wasn’t going to because he’d prepared to stay with me until evening.
“They informed me of the change in your security schedule. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” He disconnected the phone, and I shoved it in my pocket.
“Yippie, a council meeting,” I muttered.
Merick snorted. “Which do you hate more? Press conferences or council meetings?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Press conferences.” I stood and grabbed my bag. “Come on, let’s go home.”
Merick stood, and we walked out together, taking the stairs down to my car. I got into the driver's side and started the engine, giving it a moment to warm up.
Merick reached for the radio right as something ripped my door off and yanked me out of the car. I threw a ball of fire at whatever attacked me, and it dropped me on to the ground. I glanced back at Merick, who seemed to be frozen in place.
I could see him breathing, but there was no other motion to him. Hannah. I spun around looking for her, but she had disappeared after I threw fire at her. “Come on Hannah, let’s see who really is the strongest.”
She appeared in front of my car. “You think you can beat me, Abigail?” She sneered.
“I don’t really have much of a choice, do I? You broke the truce, and then you come back to our territory and attack me unprovoked. I think what you need is to be put in your place.”
She threw a ball of red magic at me. I threw my circle up and deflected it. “I should put you down. You are the abomination!” she screamed at me. “Death to Abigail Collins! Death to the king!”
I had a feeling her mind had finally slipped, and here I was, facing her alone. I had two things to my advantage here. I could break her holding spell, and Samuel was no longer in my head to distract me so Hannah could get a hit in.
This night wasn’t really looking up, but I was hoping she wouldn’t run back home, because I wanted to kick her ass. “Go home, Hannah.”
“I’m calling Mario home. Has Levi told you that? Your precious lover will be mine to do with as I wish. I can’t kill him, but I can make him suffer. And I will.”
I hadn’t expected the rush of anger that filled me at her threat, but it came so fast that my circle flashed to red.
She let out a high-pitched laugh. “Don’t like that thought, do you? What if I forced him to hurt you, Abigail?”
“You’re not allowed in this territory without Levi’s permission. You can go fuck off. I’m within my rights to take you down because you broke the truce.” I tried to force my voice to sound calm and collected, but the anger was there and very real.
She laughed. “This won’t be the last you see of me, Abby.” She threw her hand toward the car, and before I could cast a circle around it, the car flew backwards in a blast of red magic.
Merick.
Fuck.
Hannah disappeared, and I used the transportation spell to take me right to the car. “Merick? Merick!”
He appeared next to me with only a few cuts and scrapes. “I’m okay. I broke her spell right before she hit the car.”
I let out a long, slow breath, trying to rein in my emotions. “We have a huge problem on our hands.”
“And its name is Hannah,” Merick agreed. “Let’s get home and then you can figure out the car.”
I glanced at it and shrugged. “Just another day in the life of Abby I guess.”
“Yeah.” He laughed. “What’s one more car?”
Exactly. In the face of a psycho vampire, what was one more destroyed car?
By the time Zayne showed up at the house, I had finished my cup of coffee, ate dinner, and called insurance about the car. Merick had gone upstairs to make a few phone calls while I sat alone on the couch, trying to figure out what to do about Hannah and how to keep her away from Mario.
He might have betrayed me to her, but I didn’t want her torturing him. I looked up as Zayne walked into the living room.
“Ready, Princess?”
“Yeah, as ready as I’m going to be.” I stood and called up to Merrick to let him know I was leaving. Zayne stepped up to me, putting his hand on my shoulder. My house disappeared around me and we reappeared at Levi’s house.
“Not Catalina’s tonight?”
Zayne shook his head. “No, they decided to meet here.” We both walked to the ballroom.
Everyone stood as I walked in, including Levi. I took my seat to the right of Levi. and everyone sat down.
“Welcome to the meeting, Princess.” Catalina smiled at me. “We hear that you’ll be stepping into Levi’s roll again for a bit.”
“Only until I kill Samuel, yes.” There was no beating around the bush now. “Samuel has made his intentions very clear about what he wants with me. I’m not putting up with his bullshit any longer. Hannah outright attacked me tonight.” I glanced at Mario. “She said that she would call Mario home and take out her anger on him.”
There was silence around the room. “So before that happens, I need to take Hannah out. There’s no way around it. She seems to have lost her mind. Her magic was erratic when she attacked us.”
&nb
sp; “Do you think you could take her alone?” This came from Mario at my side.
I thought about the question. “If it’s just her, yes. And if I can take a blade. I don’t want to kill her with magic.”
“Still clinging to that specification.” Odis shook his head. “Princess, this is no place for you to depend on a blade.”
“Look, you guys may not have souls to worry about, or auras that need to be kept clean, but this isn’t something I’m going to budge on. I still have problems coming to terms with the two times I have killed with magic.”
Levi put a hand on my knee to calm me down, and I resisted the urge to knock it away.
“How do we get you near her with a blade?” Mario glanced at me. “She’s not likely to attack you here again. Unless Samuel hasn’t gotten her back under control.”
I shrugged. “I go with you?”
Both he and Levi turned and stared at me. I held my hands up. “There’s two options here. We either go in together, with negotiations. Get her to break the truce again. Or I go in after you without negotiations.”
“Against the laws,” Catalina reminded me. “You can go willingly with him with negotiations, but you know that won’t protect you. Hannah will negotiate a way that will allow her to harm you.”
I nodded. “I know, but we can’t let her take her anger out on Mario. I’m the one she’s mad at.”
“I think mad is a light word,” Mario muttered, and I ignored him.
“I won’t allow it,” Levi stated. “You cannot put yourself in that kind of danger, not when you’ll be acting ruler for a bit.”
I frowned. “I thought that was just a precaution. Because they broke the truce.”
“Samuel has also called me home. I used you being acting ruler as an excuse to leave you here.”
My heart sank. “How long?”
“For the rest of the time he was supposed to be here.” Levi’s voice was blank.
I pressed my lips together. “They’re trying to get to me through you guys.”
Catalina nodded. “We believe so. We have already put warnings out to those close to you to make sure they are cautious. We don’t want a repeat of Simon almost dying.”
“This might be the best time to mention that Oliver is missing.”
Levi actually let out a long sigh. “Missing by Oliver standards, or actually missing?”
“Melisandra cannot get a hold of him, and I got an odd phone call from him.”
Again, strange silence around the table.
“Zayne, tighten Abigail’s security. I want my day people discretely following her. See if Merick can spare anyone from the Cult. I know Simon can’t send wolves, but we need to make sure he and Travis understand the gravity of the situation and keep their pack safe.”
I glanced at Levi, wanting to ask why Oliver’s disappearance suddenly meant more security, but I had a feeling he knew where my uncle was. I wasn’t going to interrupt the meeting for family drama.
“Understood. I’ll step out now to make the phone call.” Zayne left the room, and I sat in silence.
“Mario and I leave tomorrow night.” Levi switched back to the subject easily. “Abigail is acting ruler until then. She should be fine, there should be nothing that pops up.”
I laughed. “Because that’s always how it goes.”
“I’ll make sure Princess Abigail has your calendar, so she knows what obligations she has.” Catalina spoke.
I didn’t like the sound of that. “How many obligations?”
Catalina picked up her phone and scrolled for a minute. “Three, a meeting with Lady R.”
Ah, fuck.
“A meeting with Agent O’Donald.”
“We can cancel that one,” Levi answered before I could question it.
“And ah.” She paused and looked at Levi. “We can cancel the third one.”
I glanced between the two of them and rolled my eyes. “Okay, so one. Can we cancel the one with Lady R?”
Levi shook his head. “No, she is presenting a new business idea. It needs my approval because it’s vampires only.”
“That means warding from the human world.”
“You’ll need to make her aware of the stipulations.” Levi nodded. “That’s what the meeting is for. There are notes in the top drawer of my desk.”
“We’ll need to renegotiate for the meeting. Lady R hates me, and I will not have her making threats or touching me.”
Catalina nodded and made a note on her phone. “That’s a good call.”
Levi stood. “Now, if you would excuse us. I think we’ve covered everything for the night. I need to go feed.”
One by one, everyone disappeared, except for Mario and me. I glanced at him. “I’m going to kill her.”
“I know that, Princess.” He smirked. “I look forward to seeing you do it.”
He disappeared, leaving me in the ballroom alone.
I’d moved from the ballroom to the living room with a cup of coffee. I hadn’t bothered turning on the television, because I wouldn’t have paid attention to it. I needed to focus on what was going on and how to handle it all, as well as how to kill Hannah and Samuel.
They’d called both vampires home. The only saving grace at this moment was that I knew Zayne’s maker wouldn’t call him home, because Catalina wouldn’t do that.
Unless she wanted to betray Levi and fuck me over. I thought about the look on her face when she looked at Levi as she went over the calendar.
No, she wouldn’t betray him. It might not have been love, but the two of them were growing closer.
Good. Levi needed someone in his life. Just like Oliver.
I sipped my coffee and settled into my thoughts. Simon was safe with the pack. My circle would protect them. Liz could take care of herself, same with Merick. This was going to be fine.
Someone cleared their throat, bringing me out of my thoughts. I glanced back at Levi standing in the doorway.
“May I join you?”
“It’s your house,” I reminded him. “And I’m not shut up in my room or the chamber.”
He sat on the opposite end of the couch. “Abigail, you offering to go with Mario was a rash choice, but I’m proud of you.”
I raised a brow. “That’s an odd thing to be proud of me for.”
“You and Mario have a rocky relationship since what happened at Hannah’s, yet you were willing to return there.”
I tried to think about what he was getting at. “The bitch needs to die. I’m tired of her controlling Mario, and I’m tired of her and Samuel’s schemes. And the more time I spend around you guys and your weird-ass maker shit, I know two things… Both of them need to die. And I don’t want to be a vampire, because I refuse to let someone have that level of control over me.”
Levi was quiet for a moment. “If you die and rise as a vampire, I’m not sure anyone would have that level of control over you.”
“You won’t be able to do it, will you?” I sighed and sat my coffee down.
“Do what?”
“Stake me. You won’t be able to.”
“You’re my daughter, Abigail. I can’t… won’t do that to you if the situation comes down to it.” He shook his head. “But that’s not what I’m sitting here to talk to you about.”
I pressed my lips together, waiting for him to continue.
“Oliver was after something. That’s why Melisandra and he left. I need to know what he said in that strange phone call to you.”
“What was he after?”
“It doesn’t matter. He was on one of his wild goose chases. Please? His message?”
“It was broken up, but he told me he was safe and to tell Melisandra that and to stay away. That’s it.”
Levi leaned back and thought for a moment. “We’re going to have to trust that he can get himself out of any trouble.”
“The Cult is also looking into it since he is a member. They don’t like when their own go missing.”
Levi nodded. “You
can handle Lady R,” he said suddenly. “Take my notes and study them. We can’t postpone that meeting any longer.”
“I’ll do what I can. I’m worried about you and Mario. Samuel’s and Hannah’s intentions are to weaken my team, but if you both come back injured and needing time to heal, we’ll be open for an attack. I can’t handle them both.”
“Divide and conquer. Remember, if she’s in our territory, you are within your rights to kill her. Because she broke the truce. The council will not fault you for it. Just like when you shot Grayson.”
That had felt pretty good, because that was when they had started taking me a little more seriously. “Okay. Then hopefully she’ll pay me a visit again.”
“Beware of her using Mario against you.”
“Oh, I know. I’ve learned that trick, remember?”
Levi smirked a little. “I know you have. I remember the pain of walking through your circle.”
“Yeah, speaking of, when were you going to tell me you were strong enough to do that?”
He shook his head. “I’m not usually, but you split your magic between Mario and I, and it distracted you. It wasn’t as strong as normal, and I knew you did not intend to harm me. So I used that weakness to my advantage and walked through it.”
I hadn’t thought about that. “Okay, so I won’t make a habit of that anymore.” I sipped my coffee. My phone rang, and I saw Liz’s name on the screen. “I have a feeling we have another body.”
Levi stood. “I’ll leave you to your work.”
I swiped the phone to answer. “Hey, Liz. What’s up?”
“Did you find something on those drawings?”
“Yeah, I sent you an update email on them. One of them had results from a case seven years ago. Merick is also asking another language person in the Cult for information. I haven’t heard from him yet though. How was your lunch date?”
She huffed. “He stood me up.”
Oh good, so it wasn’t Travis. Unless he had the balls to do that.
“That sucks. I just finished a council meeting. I’m sure you’ll get notes on it soon if you haven’t already. I haven’t seen Zayne, so he’s probably busy updating you guys.”
Liz laughed. “Oh yeah, we got the update alright. Sounds like there’s a lot going on.”
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